Writing up your dissertation makes it sound like this is the last big step that you do, but it is a good idea to start writing as you go along, as the writing process will help clarify your thinking.

Writing up your dissertation makes it sound like this is the last big step that you do, but it is a good idea to start writing as you go along, as the writing process will help clarify your thinking. It is also reassuring to have some words down on the page. You may have other coursework due so it is important to get your dissertation, thesis or research project right, and to protect your dissertation writing time.

The guidance on this page takes you through the whole writing process from managing your time to those crucial mark-gaining final checks.

This article is designed for you to go through at your own pace.

Fitting it all in: Managing your time for your dissertation should be easy. You just have to:

• Fit the things you have to do into the time you have to do them
• And leave a little wiggle room for the unexpected
• However, things are rarely straightforward

So this tutorial aims to help you think ahead about what might work well and how to plan for the things that don’t.

Make a plan: As with practically anything to do with study, the worst thing is to not have a plan. Going straight from A to Z with no idea about what comes between or how you are going to pace yourself to get it all done is never going to work well. Research is a journey, so for the best results, think about your destination and how you are going to get there. And don’t put off starting – it may feel like you have all the time in the world, but you’ll be surprised how quickly that submission date comes up, and just when you also need to work on your final assignments and revise for exams.

Keep it simple: Try to keep things simple. Detailed colour-coded timetables look lovely and are great fun to make, but tend to fail because they don’t leave room for the unexpected: when you have to wait to borrow the book you need, or have a vital query the week your supervisor is at that conference in Oslo.

Start with a framework: Start with a simple grid – you could mark it up in weeks or months, depending on how much time you have. Count back from your final submission date to see where you want to put your target deadlines. For this overall schedule, the targets need to be quite general. This framework helps to make sure your work stays under control over the whole period of your project.

Use to-do lists: When you start working, you can zoom in on a section at a time, and plan it in more detail. This is where to-do lists come in. Your to-do lists are the tools you use to get the job done. List all the tasks you have to do to achieve your target, then set yourself short deadlines to get them done. Don’t be too inflexible about deadlines for these individual tasks – if you don’t have time to finish something when you’d hoped to, you might need to borrow a little time from somewhere else. Just try to keep to your bigger target deadlines.

Use your time effectively: You will need to make sure that you use your time as effectively as possible. So:

• think about what time of day you are best at focusing and use that time for your most complex tasks like difficult reading or writing up critical sections
• use the other times for easier, more mechanical tasks like sourcing bibliography, checking references and writing up methods or data
• have some extra time built in for unforeseen disasters and things that take longer than you think like catching Freshers Flu, spilling coffee over your laptop, checking your bibliography and proofreading.

Sticking to the plan: All sounds straightforward – what’s the catch? The catch is that you have to motivate yourself to stick to your plan. So set yourself up with some rewards for hitting your targets: a cookie when you get to the end of this page, or a night out when you finish the chapter. And watch out for the procrastination thieves, who steal your time away. Think ahead about the things that tend to distract you and what you might do to avoid them: put your phone on mute, stow your videogames away on a high shelf and fill a flask with coffee to stop all those little trips to the kitchen.

What if I get stuck?: If you get stuck, step back from what you’re doing and do something different. You could:

• Review where you’ve got to set your current task on one side for now and do a different one (remember to revise your to-do list)
• Do something small to get yourself going
• Try writing questions rather than answers. These will often help you to see what answers you need.

To sum up:

• Start with a simple plan with your overarching targets for the whole dissertation
• Break down one section at a time into to-do lists and get them done
• Use your time efficiently by identifying your best and worst times of day to focus
• Have some extra time for emergencies and prepare for the procrastination thieves
  

If you do all of these things, your dissertation will be productively planned for project perfection!

Quick Tips:

Don't panic! Your dissertation might seem like an endless project, but you can break it down into a list of tasks. Having a plan for using your time to complete those tasks will get it done.

Plan an overall work schedule

Break down your dissertation into stages and plan backwards from your deadline to fit them all in.

• Start with your literature review
• Think about your methodology
• Identify primary sources
• Identify secondary sources, if appropriate
• Write as you go along
• Organise and analyse your material
• Write up
• Redraft / check / proofread

Do a little bit on a regular basis

• Decide in advance when you're going to work on your dissertation – set aside time each week or have a particular day to work on it
• Give yourself a specific task to do in that time
• Do difficult tasks at the times of day you work best
• Do easy tasks when you're tired / less motivated

Structuring your Dissertation

Getting it under control: So, you started off with a little seedling of an idea and wondered how you were going to make a whole dissertation out of it. Then you started your research, and in no time at all that little idea had grown a dozen branches, all covered with leaves and each one growing its own offshoots. Now’s the time to get it under control again before it overwhelms you. Imposing a structure on your dissertation will help you to see the shape of your overall argument, and the gaps that you need to fill.

What kind of structure? : Your structure will depend on the kind of dissertation you are writing. This might be a report-style dissertation, or an essay-style dissertation.

• A report-style dissertation is typically informative and reports on research that you have carried out. This might include some primary research, or it might be solely secondary research. The structure for this is determined by formal headings, and you may be given a template by your department.
• An essay-style dissertation is a discussion of a topic or question, supported by evidence from your research. It usually involves mostly secondary research. The structure for this is more variable, consisting of an introduction and conclusion with the main body in-between organised by whatever headings you choose.
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Report style: A report-style dissertation uses formal headings to organise its information. These may be given to you by your department, or you may need to make decisions about what to include. Typically, these are the main headings and order used, although you may find they are called something different: for instance, your findings may be called data or results. Some departments prefer you to include your literature review as part of your introduction, so do read any instructions you have carefully.

Things to think about 

• Firstly, think about what job each section is doing, as this will help you to see how to write it. For instance, the introduction is explanatory, the methods section is descriptive and the discussion section is critical and analytical.
• You would not usually start at the beginning when writing a report. You may be asked to write your literature review first to help guide the research you do, for instance. It’s a good idea to write methods and findings as soon as you have them, as they are descriptive sections and can be done quite quickly.
• Your sections do not need equal amounts of word count. Typically, your longest sections are your discussion, literature review and introduction. Your conclusion will be quite brief, while your methods and findings will be somewhere in-between.
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Essay style: An essay–style structure is not as formal as a report-style structure. The dissertation is framed by an introduction and a conclusion, which have the same jobs to do as they do in a report-style structure. But what principles you use to organise your main body are up to you. Organising by themes is likely to make the most sophisticated analysis, so brainstorm the points you have to discuss and see if you can find a way to group them together – by character trait, type of event or gender, for instance. It’s best to have no more than 3 or 4 chapters for your main body, or you risk not going into enough detail.

Things to think about:

• Don’t get hung up on finding the perfect structure first time. It isn’t set in stone – if you find a better way or change your question, you can always change it later.
• Be careful to avoid including too much narrative or description – it might be tempting to organise your structure chronologically, or by primary text, for instance, but this will tend to make for descriptive writing.
• BUT remember that you are telling the story of your research journey, so it does need to flow with each chapter building on the chapters before.
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In summary: Start to think about your structure before your research is finished to help you focus and control your work; find out whether you are writing a report or essay style dissertation; think about the job each section is doing and write accordingly; and remember that a dissertation is the story of your research journey – think about how it will tell that story.

If you do all of these things, your dissertation will be – blooming marvellous.

Quick Tips:

It's a good idea to write an overall plan outlining what you need to cover in each chapter.

Think of a dissertation like a series of linked essays; each chapter is self-contained and has its own purpose, but they all connect together to contribute to the argument of your dissertation.

The chapters don't have to all be the same length – some can be longer because they are more detailed (like the literature review) and others can be shorter because they are summarising and finalising information (like the conclusion).

Writing up your Dissertation

Point 1: You may be used to writing your assignments quite quickly – maybe sometimes even in a single night. But this just isn’t physically possible for a sustained piece of writing like a dissertation.

Point 2: Your writing journey for your dissertation is not such a neat linear process – you will likely go through periods of not seeing ‘the wood for the trees’ or a clear way forwards, but this is normal and with some planning and perseverance you will pass through this and often gain a fresh perspective.

Point 3: So when you start writing up, use your dissertation structure to guide you and make the task manageable. For a report style dissertation each section has a different role to play and this influences when and how you write it. For example, your literature review has an analytical style (you are analysing previous research to show how your research contributes to it) so it’s often written near the start of your project to set up the main concepts and context but is often redrafted near the end once you have written the discussion section and know more clearly the role the literature needs to play.

Your methods and findings sections are descriptive – describing what you did and what you found. It is best to write these up as you go along whilst you remember. Although they may be more straightforward to write, it can be easy to waffle in these sections, so be ruthless – include only what’s necessary for someone to repeat your process. Make sure you describe your findings in words (as well as presenting the data in relevant graphs and tables etc) – point out to your reader the key patterns and themes in the data.

The discussion section is discursive – meaning you are discussing and explaining your findings. It is written after you have got your findings and you need to refer back to the concepts and past research in your literature review to help you interpret what you have found.

It is likely that you will have far more findings and things to say than you need – if you are not sure what to include, always go back to your research aims or questions as your guide. For everything you include ask yourself how is it helping you to answer these aims, if it isn’t, cut it out, leaving you free to focus on the most relevant findings.

Point 4: For an essay style structure, each of the main chapters will have an introduction, body, and conclusion just like an essay. It can help to think of your dissertation like a series of linked essays (and writing a few essays isn’t all that bad). Make sure that you leave time at the end to redraft to tighten up the links between the chapters (which often come in the introduction and conclusion to each chapter) and to make sure your overall argument runs through consistently and clearly – it is far easier to do this in the redrafting stage when you can see your dissertation as a whole.

Point 5: It is important to find a space that helps you focus on writing – this might be on your favourite floor of the Library, a coffee shop, or that secret bunker on campus where none of your friends can find you to distract you.

Point 6: It is also important to protect your writing time. Your dissertation time can quickly get eaten up by all those other things that seem more immediately urgent. Block off time during your week for writing, just as you would for fixed commitments such as going to lectures or paid work.

Despite all the best intentions in the world, sometimes we just don’t feel like writing - but you need to use your precious writing time effectively, try ‘free writing’ – writing for a small fixed time, say 10 minutes, without editing, searching for references or criticising yourself. It gets you past the blank page or screen and you’ll be surprised at how much you can produce in a limited time.

Have a list of more mundane tasks, such as sorting your headings or finding missing references that you can do when you are really struggling to be creative, then you are still making forward progress on those occasions when you are more brain-dead!

Point 7: Keeping going is crucial in a longer project.

Writing your dissertation may seem like a mountainous task, but break it down into small, specific targets. It is far easier to do something defined like write 500 words than something nebulous and vague like ‘write it all up’

Spending lots of time perfecting one section can get you bogged down – write a chapter, do a small redraft, and move on. You’ll only really know what editing you need to do when you can see the first full draft.

We all get blocked in our writing at some point. Writer’s block is often a sign that we haven’t quite worked out our argument or what we want to say. Take a step back and go back to your plan – some thinking time and coming at it from another angle will often give you a break through.

It is easy to feel isolated or lose your way, but talking to other people who can ask questions, give you ideas, plus getting feedback from your supervisor can all help you get back on track.

And it’s always good to give yourself rewards to look forward to!

Summary: So to summarise, writing up your dissertation is a marathon not a sprint.

• Expect there to be some ups and downs along the way, but working steadily will soon add up.
  
• Use your dissertation structure to break your writing down and make it manageable.
  
• Protect your precious time and space to write.
  
• And keep your forward momentum going by talking to your friends and supervisor, doing free-writing and having regular rewards.

If you do this you will soon have the finish in sight.

Quick Tips:

Your dissertation may be the longest piece of writing you have ever done, but there are ways to approach it that will help to make it less overwhelming.

Write up as you go along. It is much easier to keep track of how your ideas develop and writing helps clarify your thinking. It also saves having to churn out 1000s of words at the end.

You don't have to start with the introduction – start at the chapter that seems the easiest to write – this could be the literature review or methodology, for example. Alternatively you may prefer to write the introduction first, so you can get your ideas straight. Decide what will suit your ways of working best - then do it.

Think of each chapter as an essay in itself – it should have a clear introduction and conclusion. Use the conclusion to link back to the overall research question.

Think of the main argument of your dissertation as a river, and each chapter is a tributary feeding into this. The individual chapters will contain their own arguments, and go their own way, but they all contribute to the main flow.

Write a chapter, read it and do a redraft - then move on. This stops you from getting bogged down in one chapter.

Write your references properly and in full from the beginning. Consider using a reference management tool such as EndNote or Mendeley to store the details of the materials you will want to use and to add them to your text.

Keep your word count in mind – be ruthless and don't write anything that isn't relevant. It's often easier to add information, than have to cut down a long chapter that you've slaved over for hours.

Save your work! Remember to save your work frequently to somewhere you can access it easily. It's a good idea to at least save a copy to a cloud-based service like Google Docs or Dropbox so that you can access it from any computer - if you only save to your own PC, laptop or tablet, you could lose everything if you lose or break your device.

Writing Your Literature Review Section

Most dissertations and projects will ask for a literature review section but what is one and why do you need it?

The purpose: It is important to remember that your research, or indeed any research, does not operate within a vacuum but instead build on previous findings in your field. A literature review therefore, states what the current state of research is in your chosen field and how your research fits in to this. It also provides evidence that you may need later on in your dissertation to help explain your findings and generate discussion.

Take a critical view: Doing a review therefore, requires more than just finding the relevant information but requires you to take a critical view. This will allow you to create an argument that leads to the exposure of a research problem. In many ways creating a literature review is similar to doing a jigsaw puzzle. When critically evaluating the research you will need to consider how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together to present the bigger picture and identify any missing gaps and therefore determining how your research fits in.

A 5 step plan: To create a literature review for your topic, follow this 5 step plan:

Step 1 Define the problem. You need to firstly define the topic of your study and then consider the sub topics within it that you would like to explore. For instance, I might be interested in the impact that giving reward stickers has on children’s performance. I may then wish to look for literature on: rewards and how it links to performance; theories on how children are motivated; and look for definitions of performance and how it is measured. Thinking through these concepts will help you with the next stage.

Step 2 Find the research and read critically. You are now ready to start the research. Using the definitions of the problem that you have identified, you could start your search by looking at the library catalogue using some of these key words. Once you have a number of articles, you need to be able to derive from them the information that you need for your literature review. Consider what their key findings are and whether the evidence it offers confirms your view or provides a counter argument. It’s important at this stage that you take clear and effective notes. Carefully note the reference and page numbers, as you will need to refer back to these later.

Step 3 Organise and theme. A literature review is not simply a list of all the research you have found but is written in themes. Hopefully, you will have spotted a number of themes as you have been reading and taking notes from your research. These themes can provide headings within your review. In my original example I may for instance notice these emerging themes through my reading. You will need to be able to be selective here and discount some articles that don’t fit into your major themes.

Step 4 Structure. Now you have your main themes for your literature review you will need to decide on your structure. One way to approach this would be to start with the broader themes and move to those that overlap more closely with your study – hence providing evidence for the need for your research.

Step 5 Write up. As with all good writing you need a structure to your literature review. This will include an introduction, main body and conclusion. Your introduction should explain the broad context of your research area, the main topics that you have chosen to investigate and an idea of how you have structured your review.

The main body: Following from point 4 this would be an analysis of the literature theme by theme showing how your research builds from what has come before. As mentioned, you might like to start on broader themes moving through to those most directly related to your study.

And finally your conclusion should summarise the state of research in your field, identify any gaps in knowledge and show how your investigation is going to address these gaps.

Final tips: So in summary, keep in mind the purpose of the literature review when researching and follow the 5 step plan to create a successful literature review by analysing and theming your research and writing it up in a structured, organised way.

Quick Tips:

After the initial enthusiasm wears off, it can be hard to keep motivated – it's also natural to feel confused and overwhelmed at points throughout your dissertation; this is all part of sustaining a longer project.

Here are some suggestions to keep you going:

Break down large, unappealing tasks into smaller bearable ones. Molehills are always easier to climb than mountains!

Give yourself rewards when you've completed tasks - these might range from a cup of coffee, to an exercise session, or a night out.

If you're not in a good thinking mood, do more straightforward tasks like compiling the bibliography or doing the title page.

If you're feeling confused about what you're doing, try writing a short paragraph summarising what your research is about. This can help you find a focus again.

If you're feeling overwhelmed, try identifying the one thing that you need to do next; often this will logically lead to further steps, and you'll be able to get started again.

Talk to friends or your supervisor about what you're doing; explaining where you are in your project and how it's going can help clarify your thinking.

Finalizing your Dissertation

Nearly there: You’ve done all the reading, all the research and all the writing for your dissertation. You can see the finish line. But it’s worth making sure you have enough time to polish up your dissertation so that you get the mark you deserve for all that hard work. A little time spent on proofreading, editing and checking that your referencing and layout is right can be the difference between classifications at this important stage of your academic career.

Get editing: The first thing to do, once you have a full draft, is to edit your work. Put yourself in your marker’s shoes and read through your work from the beginning in one go, like they will. Look out for anything that will annoy them when they read it - repetition and contradictions, waffling and irrelevant discussion. You will need to put your ruthless hat on for this job. You may have sweated blood and tears over a paragraph but if you find it isn’t necessary or doesn’t fit the rest of your discussion, now’s the time to let it retire gracefully.

Proof-read carefully: Proof-reading is something often left to the last minute, or not done at all if you’re short of time. But it can make a real difference to your marks. It shows that you care about your work and can be careful and meticulous. Try reading aloud – you are more likely to pay attention to each word and notice mistakes. Remember to put in the punctuation – if you have to draw a breath in the middle of a sentence, it’s probably too long.

Cite it right: Of course you know that you need to check that your references are present and correct. But do you know how much time this is likely to take?

Probably more than you think. You will have been collecting references for quite some time, and it’s easy to think you’ll add in the details later when you’re writing and you’re on a roll. As well as checking that everything that needs a citation has one, you need to also make sure you’re using the right referencing style for your department and that the way you use italics, commas, full stops and brackets to separate information is consistent. This might seem petty, but it does show that you can work with academic rigour.

Lines, margins, figures and fonts: The next thing to do is to check your layout. Look at your department’s guidelines for this – they may be in your dissertation handbook or in your course handbook. Do you need to double space your work? Is there a specified width for the margins? Are there any directions about where figures and illustrations should go - within your text, or at the end? Is your text in a professional-looking font at a reasonable size for your reader?

Front and end matters: Once you are happy with your text, it’s time to turn your attention to the front and end matters. Front matters will include a cover page, table of contents and maybe an abstract, list of figures or list of abbreviations. End matters include your bibliography and any appendices. You may have some instructions about how to do these. Alternatively, see if you can look at some past dissertations to see how they set their work out. You must leave these tasks until your text is finished or you’ll find that the page numbers keep changing.

Binding: For an undergraduate or taught postgraduate dissertation, you will not be expected to hard bind your work. Comb, soft, spiral or wire binding with a card or clear acetate cover is usually sufficient. This can be done quickly and cheaply at any print shop including Mailboxes in the Student Union. Remember to leave extra time to get this done at busy times.

Check list: So, here are the tasks you need to check off your list before you hand in your precious dissertation:

1. Have you edited to remove waffle, repetition and contradictions and make sure the narrative flows?
2. Have you proof-read carefully – aloud is best?
3. Have you checked your citations to make sure they are all present, correct, consistent and in the correct style?
4. Have you got all your front and end matters in place and listed?
5. Have you checked your department’s requirements for layout and binding?

Do all these things, and your diamond in the rough could turn out to be a real gem.

Quick Tips:

This stage can be time consuming, so leave yourself enough time to have a final read through of your dissertation to pick up any lingering mistakes or typos. Good presentation matters – it gives a

professional appearance and puts the reader in a good mood. So it is worth making sure you have enough time to proof-read and get your layout right.

General principles are:

• Double-space your writing, do not have narrow margins, and print on one side of the page only.
• Use a font that is legible and looks professional (Comic Sans is not appropriate!).
• Check what should be included in cover pages and headers and footers (e.g. page numbers).
• Have a clear Table of Contents to help your reader, and a separate List of Illustrations or tables if appropriate.
• Consider what information should be put in Appendices and check that you have referred to the appropriate appendix in your text.

If you're trying to track down that missing reference for your bibliography, you can always ask HAMNIC Solutions Experts  for help finding it.

Binding

Undergraduate dissertations are usually 'soft bound'. This means having a soft card cover, with the pages joined together with comb, spiral, or thermal binding. You can get this done at many print shops,

often while you wait.

If you choose to get your work hard bound, it can take a few days (more at busy times), so check with the printers / stationers beforehand.

If you have any questions about writing a dissertation, thesis or research project, feel free to leave a comment below. If you’d like 1-on-1 help with your dissertation, thesis or research project, be sure to book an initial consultation with one of our friendly Research Coaches.